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Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Just Released Book (Dec 4) Wright Brothers Wrong Story points to Wilbur Wright as the Man who Invented Flight with his brother Orville changing history to claim credit. Smithsonian brings new thesis on Wright Brothers Historic Flight to light.

By far the best published work on the Wright brothers' personal and professional lives. Thought-provoking and controversial in highlighting Wilbur's brilliance in aeronautics and showing how he clearly overshadowed his brother's contribution to manned flight.Alan C. Carey, Author of "We Flew Alone: Men and Missions of the United States Navy's B-24 Liberator Squadrons"

"I wanted to demythologize the Wright Brothers and find out who these two men were who dropped out of high school, never married, and never left home," Hazelgrove said in a recent interview. The book has been making waves in the aviation community that has stuck to the view that both brothers equally created the worlds first plane. "What people don't understand is this was Wilbur's dream and that he solved the head-cracking physics of flight and he went down to Kitty Hawk alone initially... it was his plane first and last."

The book claims Orville Wright exaggerated his role in the invention and rewrote history in a one-sided biography of himself

"In Wright Brothers, Wrong Story," author William Hazelgrove reveals the real genius was older brother Wilbur, who died nine years after the first flight in 1912

Orville, who died in 1948, claimed to have come up with wing warping - Wilbur's big breakthrough and was also photographed in the famous flying photo

Wilbur's letters to his friend and fellow inventor Octave Chanute show Orville was not involved in any of his plans

It was only when Wilbur arrived in Kitty Hawk, NC to test his flight in 1900 - the boys' father Milton sent Orville to help him

The book reveals Orville and Wilbur showed no interest in the opposite sex and were raised to stay at home and believe only "family could be trusted"

We believe in myths. George Washington did cut down a cherry tree. (Never happened.) Benjamin Franklin did fly a kite with a key to discover electricity. (Not exactly.) Wilbur and Orville Wright, the legendary brothers, together invented manned mechanical flight.

To deconstruct that myth today, all we really have to go on are two foundational sources: the Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers, housed at the Library of Congress, and the 1903 Flyer, the prototype plane they succeeded in sending aloft on that storied morning of December 17. The Flyer itself, including its propeller, reside in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “All propellers built heretofore are all wrong,” Wilbur wrote in a letter to fellow scientist Octave Chanute in 1903. After conducting experiments on marine propellers and devising a kind of wind tunnel for testing, Wilbur envisioned cutting-edge propellers “which are all right!”

When I began research for what would become my book, Wright Brothers, Wrong Story, immersion in the documents led to a new narrative, and it counters the defining assumption: that Orville and Wilbur jointly produced the Flyer. That makes for the ultimate teamwork epic—but the Wrights’ saga is actually the story of Wilbur.

How could two misanthropic brothers who never left home, were high-school dropouts, and made a living as bicycle mechanics have figured out the secret of manned flight? This new history of the Wright brothers' monumental accomplishment focuses on their early years of trial and error at Kitty Hawk

Left: Orville Wright in 1905 at age 34 in a photograph taken by his brother Wilbur. Right: Wilbur Wright in 1905 at age 38 (Library of Congress)

The crude propeller is, I would argue, wholly the product of Wilbur’s vision. To him we owe that first 12 seconds of successful powered flight.

Wilbur may never have applied his genius to aeronautics if it hadn’t been for a random misfortune. In the winter of 1886, Wilbur, age 17, suffered a devastating setback when his jaw was shattered during a hockey match. Wilbur’s dream of attending Yale was dashed. Instead, at home in Dayton, Ohio, he endured a grueling convalescence and, for three years, serious depression. It was during this enforced inactivity that Wilbur alone became obsessed with figuring out the secret of manned flight.

In 1896, Wilbur, on his own, contacted the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Samuel Pierpont Langley, requesting information on human attempts at mechanized flight, including “such papers as the Smithsonian has published on this subject, and if possible a list of other works in print in the English language.” Langley’s assistant, Richard Rathbun, obliged by sending a “list of books and pamphlets on aviation.” Wilbur alone contacted the United States Weather Service, asking for data on meteorological conditions, including wind speed, at locations throughout the United States—information that would lead Wilbur to choose Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, as the test site. Wilbur wrote to the Chicago-based aeronautical scientist Chanute. Their correspondence would produce 500 letters and culminate in Wilbur’s breakthrough thinking. Wilbur built the first “kite wing,” a box-shaped wing with two levels, and tested that prototype alone in a field near the family home in Dayton. Wilbur then built a glider, in his workshop above the brothers’ bicycle repair shop, and shipped it to Kitty Hawk. And in the first year of the new century, Wilbur headed to this fishing village...alone.

On September 23, 1900, Wilbur wrote his father, Bishop Milton Wright, “I have my machine nearly finished....I do not expect to rise many feet from the ground and in case I am upset there is nothing but soft sand to strike on....It is my belief that flight is possible.”

His father, in turn, acknowledged Wilbur’s leading role. In a letter, he admonished his son to be mindful of safety: “You have so much that no one else can do so well. And alone, Orville would be crippled and burdened.” Orville would not make his first attempt at flight until 1902, long after Wilbur had made hundreds of tries.

Orville was Wilbur’s student and helpmate. But he was also the keeper of history. The Wright brothers’ story was the product of death, a friendship and a biography that would set the stage for every future chronicle. Fred C. Kelly published The Wright Brothers: A Biography Authorized by Orville Wright in 1943. Wilbur Wright died in 1912 from typhoid fever. Orville would live until 1948, the survivor who gave access to some family letters and documents to Kelly, a friend who adhered to the dictate that Orville must approve every page of the biography. The book is ultimately Orville’s version of events, which was that the brothers deserved equal credit for the invention of the airplane. (Indeed, Orville’s name appears in the biography 337 times to Wilbur’s 267.)

Wilbur Wright was the man who really invented controlled flight, though it is nearly heretical to say so. Orville, though a gifted mechanic, never had the genius to make the leap from theory to application.

The brothers took turns piloting the aircraft at Kitty Hawk that month, and a coin toss determined who would be at the controls on the morning the plane first successfully lifted off: Orville, his historic triumph immortalized by a box camera.

Wilbur possessed the imaginative intuition that transformed a crude wooden propeller into an instrument that vaulted humans into a new era. That is the difference between the poet and the scribe. And that is all the difference in the world.

Orville Wright takes to the air at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in the world’s first powered, controlled, sustained flight, on December 17, 1903. His brother Wilbur (on the ground, right) has just released his hold of the right wing’s forward upright. (John T. Daniels / Library of Congress)

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Once upon a time there were two brothers. Everyone said they were the same but in fact they were not. The reason people saw them as the same is their father willed it be so. The Bishop was adamant that to the world they must provide a United Front. Their father believed the world to be evil and he wanted his children to stay home and provide him with a home when he returned from his travels. So Wilbur Katherine and Orville did just that. They stayed home their entire adult lives and kept the Bishop company and presented an equal united front to the world.

But Wilbur was different. He was smashed in the mouth with a hockey stick by a future mass murderer and went into a three year depression. By the end he wanted to fly. His brother had no real interest in flight and was happy to continue making bicycles. But Wilbur read everything and then contacted the Smithsonian and then the weather bureau to find out where the winds blew constantly. He then built his own kite flyer and flew outside of Dayton. He knew then that he was onto something and went down to Kitty Hawk North Carolina with a gilder he built. He went alone.

But Orville would join him and watch Wilbur fly his gliders for two years. By 1902 Orville tried the gliders and crashed but to the world they were now the Wright Brothers and nothing would change this. Even when Wilbur presented his findings to engineers in Chicago and had a five hundred letter correspondence with Octave Chanute where he worked out the physics of flight. Orville was not part of any of this but a photo on Dec 17 1903 showed him flying and not Wilbur. From then on it was assumed they both invented the first plane. All the books said so...

Friday, November 16, 2018

Yeah I was Capones dentist. I had just finished my speech and was shutting down my computer. The man held onto his wifes arm. The woman nodded. He was Capones dentist. What was that like I asked. The man grinned. Dangerous He always came in with his goons. They were big guys in loud suits and they always had their guns out. It didn't matter how many people I had in the waiting room they just walked in and nobody said a thing and Capone he just put himself in the chair. It didn't matter what I was doing. His goons would pull the guy out of my chair and Capone would sit down.

The woman nodded. Nobody wanted to mess with him. The man shrugged. Yeah. So Capone would sit down and his goons would take out their guns and hold them in front of him while I worked on him. And every time I had to do something I would say to the goons. This is going to hurt. The would look and then say to Al Capone. This is going to hurt Al. And then I would work on his teeth and the whole time they had their guns out.

So then I finished up. The woman nodded. He worked real fast on Capone. Yeah. So I finished up and then the goons would walk out in the waiting room and look around and then Capone would leave and the goons would give me a big fat envelope of cash. The woman shook her head. Just like that they would leave the money. The man shrugged again. It was a lot of money and those were hard times. It was the woman said. But I was Capones dentist. The woman nodded. He was Capone's dentist.

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Orville always made sure his socks matched. He made sure they had a bit of color. His mustache was trimmed perfectly. His hands were immaculate. His collar snapped, his eyes clear as water. He inspected his shoes carefully after they were shined. His derby was top of the line and fitted just so. Orville would work on greasy engines and the flyer in a smock and never smudge his starched white shirt. The world was at attention when Orville walked in the room. Unlike his brother.

Wilburs skin was rough from sun and wind burnt. His clothes tended to hang on his lanky frame. His eyes bore right through a person. Some said he had the gaze of a hawk and was always intent on the next thing. He did get dirty from working on the plane. He didn't bother to wash his hands and his nails would get grease stained. His shoes were smudged. His socks matched but they were black. He was more rugged than his brother.

When they returned from Kitty Hawk Orville would bleach his faced with lemon juice to reduce the tan. Within a week he was back to his normal pallor. Wilbur remained dark and tan and could have cared less. He was trying to figure out how to make a plane fly.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

I have given over fifty speeches and done just as many book signing on Al Capone and the 1933 Worlds Fair. At the speeches and signings people bring memorabilia from the fair and their stories of Al Capone. Here are a few....

He had on a brimmed cap and walked up my book table. Yeah, I knew Capone. I was in the Barnes and Noble doing a book signing. I looked at the man. Really? Oh yeah. My mom was his girlfriend. She was a number. Real good looking see. Anyway she and Capone got into a fight. She was real good looking and so they get in this fight and Capone gets mad and I'm only ten years old but these two goons come to the apartment and take me down to a a speakeasy on Maxwell Street.

So Im pretty scared cause these guys have guns. So they take me into this speakeasy and its real dark and I cant see nothin. My mom had told me she and Al were in a fight. I think he hit her or something. So these guys sit me down at a table and this big fat Italian guy comes in and sits down in front of me. He starts hitting me all over the place, slapping me around. I don't know who the guy is but he starts asking me whats wrong with my mother. Like I said she was a real number.

So after a while he stops hitting me and the goons take me back to my apartment. The man looked at me and smiled. And that was Al Capone? Yeah. That was Capone. Yeah. He and my mom got back together for a while but then they broke up. The man paused and shrugged. But she was his girlfriend. My mom...she was Al Capones girlfriend.

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Novelist William Hazelgrove

William Hazelgrove is the best selling author of twelve novels, Ripples, Tobacco Sticks Mica Highways, Rocket Man, The Pitcher, Real Santa, Jack Pine, Pitcher 2, and the forthcoming My Best Year, Pitcher 3 and the Bad Author. His books have received starred reviews in Publisher Weekly, Book of the Month Selections, ALA Editors Choice Awards and optioned for the movies. He was the Ernest Hemingway Writer in Residence where he wrote in the attic of Ernest Hemingway’s birthplace. He has written articles and reviews for USA Today and other publications. His latest novel Rocket Man due out May 1, 2013 was chosen Book of the Year by Books and Authors.net. He runs a political cultural blog, The View From Hemingway’s Attic. A forthcoming novel, The Pitcher will be out Sept 1, 2013. He lives in Chicago.
www.williamhazelgrove.com